The answer is 42.

Ah, I suppose now you are asking, “What’s the question?” Easy. It’s “the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything.” Don’t believe me? Ask Google. Go ahead, copy, and paste the phrase and see what Google says. I’ll wait.

I’m a big The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fan. In one scene, aliens create a supercomputer named Deep Thought and ask it to answer the question of life, the universe, and everything. Deep Thought says it will take seven and a half million years to get the Ultimate Answer. So, seven and a half million years pass, and the aliens return to get the answer. Deep Thought says the answer is 42.

I wonder if Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski were aware of the Ultimate Answer when they wrote their 2019 book, Burnout: The Secret To Solving The Stress Cycle. In their book, they talk about the 42% Law of Rest. This law maintains the human body and brain need 42% of the day or 10 hours of rest. You don’t need to hit the 10-hours of rest mark every day. You can average it over a weekly or monthly basis.

I freaked out — a little. Ok, maybe more than a little. Exactly where was I supposed to conjure another 10 hours for rest? I relaxed when I realized the ladies included sleep in the calculation. They also suggested four other categories to consider when calculating the 10 hours. The only problem was they assumed the recommended 8 hours, and I seldom hit that benchmark. My average is 6 hours and 42 minutes. I double-checked. One hundred ninety-eight minutes left to relax.

Category Number 2 — 30 minutes of stress-relieving conversations. Are you joking? Damn it, Jim, I’m an introvert, not a conversationalist. Maybe I can count the 20 minutes hiding out in the bathroom where I avoid having to talk to other people. One hundred seventy-eight minutes. Next.

Exercise. It keeps getting worse. I hate exercising, sweating, smelly gym stuff, and I never confuse exercising with resting. Exercise is resting? What am I missing? The 42% law notes that exercise improves sleep quality (so they keep telling me), breaks the stress cycle (I doubt it), and helps ease the body into rest mode (uh-huh). I call it collapsing from exhaustion. But I’m behind, so I’m adding in my 45 minutes of daily torture. One hundred thirty-three minutes left to assign.

Food/Meals. This bucket includes the time you spend eating as well as cooking and shopping, along with a caveat. Eating while engaged in another activity, such as watching TV or listening to a podcast, doesn’t count. I’m confused. I don’t live to eat. I eat to live, which means feeding my face is always performed while doing something else. We are down to the wire with one hundred thirty-three minutes and one last category.

Wildcard — 30-minutes devoted to your most relaxing activity. Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner. There is one thing I look forward to doing every day — my daily writing session. But based on the 42% Law of Rest, I am renaming it as my 133-minute rest session. Go away and leave me alone I’m resting. And you better believe I intend to I meet my recommended 10 hours of rest every day.

Did you write yesterday? Are you writing today?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer